Give a Cheer
This one for my DS - he did the journaling. In fact I had done the first page leaving the small journal spot but then he sent me an epistle - so I made the second page.
Old Basic Grey, Inkadinkado stamps + ? , ink Prima and Tim Holtz
Journaling:
One of the most beautiful places I have hiked, Green Mountain makes you work for it both in elevation climb and just getting there. 7 miles north of Darrington you turn east off of Hwy 530 on to a forest service road and 24 miles later you end up at the trailhead. In 2006 12 miles short of the trail head the Suiattle River Road was washed away in a severe flood. Eventually in 2014 it was reopened better than ever.
During the time the road was being rebuilt there was a battle between lawmakers, environmentalist, forest service and Darrington town people about the fate of the fire lookout at the top of Green Mountain originally built in 1933. In 2010 the forest service partially rebuilt the lookout. In order to do this and not walk the 12 miles of the washed out road and then hike the trail with wood beams they used a helicopter. This approach met with disdain from the environmentalist who demanded the lookout be dismantled since polluting motorized vehicles were used in the restoration. They even went so far as to file a lawsuit, which the environmentalist actually won. Doomed for dismantling an act of god came and saved the lookout.
On 3/22/2014 the earth moved and the Oso slide devoured 49 homes and killed 43 people. When President Obama came to town he asked the mayor a simple question what could he do, to which the mayor replied, save our lookout. Shortly after by an act of Congress the lookout was saved.
You start off in the quiet of an old growth forest which gives way to sprawling dense meadows that look like an old clear cut tract. Here the humidity rose as the green bushes were trapping the heat. Every little bit the bushes clear and you get a good look at the Suiattle river valley. You can see White Chuck in front of you at nearly 7000 feet it's impressive but then you turn around and see Glacier Peak, which at 10,541 feet really is an awesome sight.
Eventually you traverse back and end up on a ridge line that drops you into a beautiful green meadow. With a couple small lakes, wildflowers and you are thinking the lookout should be here somewhere ….. and then you look up, I mean way up and you can barely make out the lookout. Honestly at this point I was a little disheartened. I had 2 blisters already going full bore and the day was warmer than expected. Figuring I had already come this far and the views were gorgeous I would push on because the views had to be even better up there. So I started the 1 mile, 1300 ft climb to the top. With no tree cover and the heat I took my time to get to the top.
Once you arrive you can see for miles and miles in every direction. You see the bend in the Suiattle River that leads right to its source, Glacier Peak. You can see more peaks than you can name.
Thanks for spreading positivity!
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